Letter 190
To Modestus. (360)
While we were lamenting what has happened to Procopius and praying for his darkness to be lifted, the Cilicians -- the very people who received so many kindnesses from him -- repaid his generosity like Agamemnon [who took what was not his]. Like wolves falling on unguarded sheep, they have plundered his daughter's household as though it were Mysian booty [proverbially easy pickings].
And yet Procopius is alive. He has lost his money, but in every other respect he is the man he always was. You too are alive, and powerful, and you count Procopius among your friends, and you know how to be a friend no less than how to govern. Show those villainous Cilicians that this man is not so easy to push around.
And do not wonder that I have sent a short letter about so many wrongs. The man carrying it is a rhetorician -- Procopius's own son, wronged alongside his father, with a tongue equal to the tragedy.
Modern English rendering for readability. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek for scholarly use.
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